Minister of International Development Hilde F. Johnson

Speech at the fifth anniversary of Fredskorpset

Oslo, 8 June 2005

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Your Excellencies, Mama Graca Machel, dear friends,

It is an honour and an inspiration to have you here today – at this 5 ^th> anniversary of Fredskorpset.

As you have surely noticed, our city is in a festive mood. Because of your visit, of course, but also because 100 years have passed since the dissolution of the union between Norway and Sweden. We are celebrating in grateful recognition of the wisdom of our leaders at that time. The fight for independence was brought to a peaceful end, creating the foundation for a free and modern Norway.

In times of crisis, we need wise leaders and strong leadership, in Norway as well as in South Africa.

Madiba is a leader who stands out in world history, a leader who was instrumental in bringing South Africa through its peaceful transition. Nelson Mandela was – and is – guided by a vision of people living together in dignity and respect. We salute his efforts.

And we recognise your persistent efforts, Mama Graca, to help create a better world for children – in Mozambique, in South Africa and elsewhere in Africa. We admire the work you have done to promote human rights, and in particular your efforts to help children in conflict. I remember how you pushed this issue to the forefront of the global agenda, and how it led to the protocol prohibiting the use of child soldiers. You have spoken out for millions who have had to endure a life in misery. You have given them a voice.

Different roles, but the same kind of leadership.

In times of national crisis, national leaders must act. In the face of a global crisis, global leaders must act. I want to talk about leadership in one particular area, in fighting the HIV/AIDS pandemic, in breaking the silence, fighting the stigma. Here, both of you have been true leaders.

Last year at the International AIDS Conference in Bangkok, Nelson Mandela called for renewed efforts from the world’s leaders:

“They must dare to be different...and they must come up with bold and innovative responses. This is what leaders are for, and the AIDS epidemic will test their leadership skills to the limits.”

The 46664 Campaign, led by Nelson Mandela and you, Graca Machel, shows what leadership can do in the fight against HIV and AIDS.

We know the grim facts:

• 40 million people in the world are HIV-positive.
• Five million more will be infected this year.
• 25 million have already died, many of them parents of the 11 million children that now are orphans.

Sub-Saharan Africa is the hardest hit, but we see the epidemic moving with alarming speed in Asia and Eastern Europe as well.

The statistics fill us with despair. The solutions seem so far away.

It is hard not to lose heart in the face of such an overwhelming adversary.

That is why we need you and the 46664 Campaign to remind us that we cannot give up, we cannot forget the people behind the numbers, the poverty, the suffering. It is our duty to help. It is our duty to keep going.

Because the AIDS spiral threatens to destroy ever more lives, ever more communities, ever more countries. And it threatens the development of a whole continent, Africa. That is why I would like to focus on this here today.

Women are the backbone of Africa, a strong force on the continent. With the feminisation of the HIV/AIDS pandemic, this force is weakened. We see a double burden. Mama Graca, you have used your voice to promote the rights of the women of Africa – women whose lives are harder than we can imagine. Now they have an added burden – the burden of AIDS.

Because it is the women who suffer the most. Nearly 60 per cent of the people infected by HIV in Africa are women. The highest infection rate is found among young women between 15 and 24. In some countries between twice and five times as many young women are are infected as young men.

We know why.

It is because women’s bodies are more prone to infection than men’s. Women are twice as likely to be infected after sexual intercourse than men are. And the younger the woman, the greater the risk of infection.

It is because poor women in developing countries have little access to modern health services, and because they know far too little about HIV and AIDS.

It is because young women often have sex with older partners – because they have to, not because they want to.

It is because women don’t know enough about how to protect themselves, and because men refuse to let them if they do know.

It is because women are lowest on the social ladder.

It is because their voices more often than not are ignored.

But when we do listen, when we can hear their stories, we may cry - but even more important – we should cry out.

HIV-infected women are stigmatised and discriminated against – in Africa, and even in liberal Norway.

Silence and taboos kill – every day.

The shame of HIV means that many women in developing countries avoid testing. When a positive test result can lead to violence, to losing their home, to rejection by the local community and even by their family – who are we to say that they are wrong? When AIDS medicine is scarce and out of reach for most – what options do they have?

Solutions must be found.

The world community has a moral responsibility to intervene.

The UN Task Force on Women, Girls and HIV/AIDS in Southern Africa, created in 2003, has told us how. We need strategies that include:

• strengthening of legal and political frameworks
• better access to health services and education
• more opportunities for financial independence, and
• support to local women’s organisations.

We have to focus on women’s rights. We have to take a rights-based approach in our HIV/AIDS strategy. We have to strengthen women’s rights and the legal protection of women – to give them the tools and the position to withstand the epidemic.

And we have to learn from interventions that work. If you reach the women, you also reach the children. Let me give you an example.

In Kisumu, a desperately poor area of Kenya, what are known as “barefoot lawyers” have been educated with Danish support. Half of them are women.

The women of Kisumu are used to being badly treated. Polygamy is widespread. Rape is almost never punished. Violence and discrimination are part of everyday life for women in these societies.

But in Kisumu, the “barefoot lawyers” have started a revolution.

The lawyers explain to the women that democracy begins at home, in bed even - and it spreads from there to the whole village and to the whole country. Men can be made to answer for their actions. Men can be punished. Women can stand up for themselves. The message is spreading like wildfire – to the delight of the women and the consternation of the men. Women are being given the knowledge and the courage to take up the fight against traditional discrimination, and their daughters can hope for a future where this vicious cycle has been broken.

As Mpeo Mahase, one of the few women in the Lesotho National Assembly, says:

“When you empower women, you empower the nation. Without change, our future is non-existent.”

The fight against HIV/AIDS in poor countries also includes the fight to give girls an education.

We know that education is a universal vaccine against many of the scourges that affect developing countries today: poverty, overpopulation and disease – not least AIDS.

In the fight against HIV/AIDS, educating girls is one of the smartest things we can do. An educated girl creates enormous ripple effects – for herself, for her children and for her local community. She knows more about her rights, she knows about family planning, she knows about hygiene and health care. She is in a better position to protect herself against HIV. Her children are more likely to survive and attend school. And here we have a completely different cycle – a positive one, leading to a future of hope.

The fight against AIDS is a key element in the overall efforts to world fight poverty. We have to keep the attention of the world community focused on this humanitarian catastrophe – during the 46664 Arctic Campaign, and during the days and years to come. The Millennium Development Goals cannot be reached for Africa without addressing this pandemic.

Norway will be a leading force in the efforts to ensure that the fight against HIV/AIDS is successful. And we want to mobilise donors to provide the necessary resources and do so in a co-ordinated way. This includes research on providing women with the possibility of protecting themselves from being infected, with gels and other measures, so-called microbicides.

Because they know what works best. The women in the villages of Kenya, the girls in the slums of Malawi, the grandmothers taking care of orphans in South Africa – we need to involve all of them in finding out what will work in their local community, in their lives. The changes must come from within, but with solid, predictable and reliable support from outside.

If we are to defeat the AIDS epidemic in the poor parts of the world, we have to co-ordinate our efforts. We not only have to help women survive, we have to help them take control over their own lives. They and their daughters must receive treatment, respect, education and opportunities to support themselves. We need to fight for them today so they can fight for themselves tomorrow.

Mama Graca, you set a strong example as Minister for Education in Mozambique, working to implement Frelimo’s goal of education for all Mozambicans. You have shown global leadership in your quest for universal education, and in your work for children trapped in conflict. You have played an active role in fighting HIV/AIDS. You are a role model for young women in Africa. As a 14-year-old girl in Chaukwe, Mozambique, pointed out:

“Mama Graca has shown us the way forward. She has proved that girls can do the same things as boys can. She has helped me become the person I am today.”

President Mandela, Mama Machel – your commitment has inspired women and men from the southernmost tip of Africa to the northernmost tip of Norway. We thank you for being with us here in Oslo. We thank you for showing us the way forward - and for showing us that dreams can come true.

Twenty years ago I was marching in the streets of London in a huge anti-apartheid demonstration, singing: “Free Nelson Mandela”. Ten years later Nelson Mandela, Madiba, was not only free, he became president of a South Africa in peace and justice. Dreams can come true! Many of us know the slogan “Another world is possible”. Yes, I also think that another Africa is possible.

Just as Nelson Mandela was set free from prison, it is possible to free Africans from the prison of poverty. If we keep fighting. Mama Graca, on behalf of all of us – please convey our warmest regards to Madiba, and tell him that we will continue the fight. And just as we count on you – on your leadership, you can count on us.

Thank you.